Mirrored
by Celona-chan
Summary: Set somewhere in the middle of season one. Hei is finally getting settled and used to his current cover, until a mysterious contractor appears and turns his world upside down. Hei/OC rating is subject to change.


**A/N: Heyyyyyy anonner story! this one's kind of a work in progress. Hopefully it'll come along smoothly. Please review. It means the world when you do!**

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1  
Kuro's View

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I can't handle sitting still… ever.

Becoming a contractor may have made me a rational thinker and decision maker, but I guess contractors can still have some weird version or mutation of ADHD.

So naturally I hated planes. And small crevices and places in general. So maybe I had claustrophobia too. Somewhere high above the ocean, 35,000 feet above the surface of the water, I was in a little flying tube of people, close to my final destination; Tokyo, Japan. Americans can still move to Japan, even if security measure had gotten tighter and stronger since the South America incident with Heaven's Gate. So Japan had made it their mission to protect Hell's Gate from anyone (meaning contractors) who might attempt to cause the same events here.

I could care less about the Gate; I just wanted to get out of America. Japan seemed like an obvious choice since I was so obsessed with the culture.

The seatbelt sign blinked on, and the voice of the pilot came on over the noise of the plane, saying something about sitting and getting ready for the final descent into Tokyo.

Almost There.

Having to leave my home in Washington was hard. But after most of my family died, I couldn't bear to stay and have to face my older sister. Not because I would feel bad or because I feared they would haunt me. No.

Contractors couldn't feel.

But the fact that I couldn't feel, that I can't feel. That feeling of nothing, of emptiness, was all just so wrong. It made me a freak of nature. Sometimes it was like I could feel, though, like they were almost back. Or rather, the emotions were there, I just couldn't comprehend them. I was always a really emotional person when I was human. Maybe that's why.

As the plane descended into Tokyo airport, I got my first look of the biggest city I'd ever set my eyes on.

After a bumpy and turbulence filled landing, I kept my eyes peeled for someone from my current employer, the Syndicate. They would probably send someone who didn't even know what I was. Then a woman approached me, and I realized I thought wrong.

She looked very professional, wearing a gray pinstriped business suit, but it looked as if she hadn't slept in days, and the wary look in her eyes was one that never left her, and haunted her always. It was the look of someone who knew about the world of contractors. In my special way of not feeling, I felt bad. I had no reason to hurt her; I didn't take pleasure in hurting other people. The makeup plastered on her face in a futile attempt to mask her sleepless nights, probably spent at her job. Her low black heels clicked on the floor and her short black hair bounced when she walked.

When she reached me, she quietly asked, "BK-104? Miss Celona?"

I nodded, even though being addressed by my Messier Code was annoying, I didn't want to deal with this woman having a breakdown in the airport.

"Please, call me Kuro in public, Kuro Omoi.* Pleased to meet you miss…?" I held out my hand in greeting. She looked at it like it was a bomb, and then ignored it.

"Who I am isn't important," she said, handing me a manila envelope. "Your Japanese is good for an American. You could easily be mistaken for a native speaker."

I smiled. All the anime I was always watching helped me be rid of the obnoxious American accent.

"Thank you."

She nervously straightened her jacket. "The advance payment is there along with a key card to a room in the Lotus Hotel. You can stay in the room until you can find a steady job and a place to live. There's already a taxi waiting for you outside of the baggage-claim area."

I looked towards the arrows pointing to baggage claim, and sighed. There were so many people; it was starting to make me uncomfortable because I had been out in the open for so long.

"Thank you." Another forced smile. "I appreciate it." Another false statement. While walking away, I waved without turning around. "See you around, Miss My-Name-Isn't-Important."

I could feel the warmth from her angry and embarrassed blush.

I got a soda and sat down in baggage claim to wait for my plane's bags to arrive. Out of habit, I sat in a place where I had a view of every entrance to the area.

The Syndicate was being awfully cheeky. They had given me an exorbitant amount of spending money, enough to buy a new car, and there was no doubt that the 5 star hotel had cameras watching every inch of the place. Lucky for me, I had already found a small apartment in a quiet neighborhood away from all the busy city streets.

I saw my jet black suitcase among the brightly colored and flower print bags and grabbed it, heading for the taxi. I gave the man the address of my new apartment and watched the city pass by through my window.

Lost in my thoughts, I stared at Hell's Gate. If you could get past all the rumors of what goes on near the gate, it was actually beautiful. Those that are able to recognize the beauty in horrifying things were always the only people I could stand to be around. Other people just seemed so much more ignorant. Not many could see the beauty in terrifying things.

As I arrived at the apartments, the landlady was making a scene and yelling at a black cat in a tree. I paid the cabbie and got my things out of the trunk while watching the old woman. She had pulled out a broom and was waving it around in hopes of scaring the cat off. I walked forward to see if I could help.

"Hello, Ms. Oyama," I said, giving her my most earnest smile.

"Can't you see that I am busy, young lady? I'm trying to get this vermin away from my tenants! Shoo! Go away you filthy creature!" she continued yelling and waving around her broom at the cat, and ignored me. Since she was so short, there was no way she would have any effect, whether she had a broom or not. I tapped her lightly on the shoulder to stop her from accidently hitting me with the broom, and walked in front of her.

"What do you think you're doing?" she wailed, but I ignored her this time, and started scaling the tree.

Steadying myself on a branch, I called out in English, "here, kitty-kitty." The cat looked at me, and I could have sworn it was scowling at me. It jumped out of the tree and ran off, and I jumped out shortly after and wiped the bark off my hands.

"You speak English, huh?" the old lady asked, "Are you the one that called about the vacant room I have?"

"Yes, ma'am, my name is Kuro Omoi. You said I could move in today…?"

She nodded. "I remember now. Did you choose your Japanese name? It's a bit dark…"

"No, I didn't," I said, lying with ease.

"Alright, your room is on the second floor."

I followed her up the stair as she talked about all of her current tenants, my new neighbors. "They're all a bunch of slackers. And loud too. They always keep me up at night with that crap they call music. But the nice man in the room right next to you is a responsible young person; Always pays rent on time, isn't ever loud, and is always polite. You two act alike, you even look alike. Are you an exchange student too?"

I blinked, overwhelmed by this woman's ability to talk. She probably was one to gossip in her younger years. Her sudden question caught me off guard and I had to think twice in order to keep up my cover.

"Yes, ma'am, I'm studying at the university. They have an amazing biology program." I smiled again. I never usually showed so much emotion. She stopped in front of the second of three doors on the floor and unlocked it, letting me take a look inside. "It's small, but since you're alone, I think it'll work perfectly."

I looked around. It would work fine.

"It's perfect," I told her as I stepped back outside again. "Would you like me to pay you upfront, or at the end of the month?"

She was about to answer, but was cut short when the third door on the floor opened and a young guy with black hair and pale skin stepped outside.

He looked like he hadn't slept in days, like something was weighing on his mind, like he'd seen too much of the world he lived in, like emotions didn't mean anything… He looked like a _contractor._

But then he smiled, and the circles all but disappeared from his eyes. All that "contractor aura" that I thought I saw was miles away. Maybe I was just imagining things. I _had _been on a plane all day.

"Hi there," he said. "You're the new neighbor?"

I nodded and stuck out my hand. "Hello, I'm Kuro Omoi. I'm moving in next door today."

We shook hands. "I'm Li Shengshun. Pleased to meet you."

I looked him in the eyes. "Pleased to meet you too, Li."

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***Kuro- translates to "black" or "dark"**

**Omoi- translates to "feelings" or "thoughts" and sometimes even "love"**


End file.
